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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

Sokrates

Active member
Member
I stumbled across this while searching for something else and it was hilarious because I actually remember that incident Boleslaw/Zastaw is mentioning.

But he's really misremembering what happened there. The mods really get annoyed at 'no content drivel' and there were several users bouncing around the forum at that time that weren't rating games or anything and just posting way too much with nothing to say. A bunch of the spammy nothing threads finally got rounded up and deleted and they got penalties for shitposting, and then a final STFU warning in that mod thread. I think only two of them managed to follow this complicated instruction. As usual it was a matter of hilarity for the regulars.
Then virtually cracking the whip or just banning was a marvellous idea.
 

clover

Well-known member
Member
Idk where else to put this but I always find the way amy writes relationships in infamous weird. This is purely about personal preference, though.

Anyways, I just find it weird how seven and avina sleep together "platonically". I just can't imagine two almost thirty year adults doing that. Never heard of that happening in real life. And if did, it would gain a lot of side eyes. At least where I am from. When it comes to mc and seven— they were teenagers. Teenagers have sleepovers all the time. It's also weird how readers are just forced to accept that because if you find it weird then boooo how could you. Hey, even in-game characters like rowan and August were grossed out abt sleeping with the mc. Again, this is just purely personal preference. Maybe it has to do with my upbringing, but I have come across a good bunch of people both on Tumblr and forum who found it strange as well.

The romance options for seven feel like...how do I put this? Borderline harassment? If someone is clearly cussing at me and looks visible uncomfortable with my presence I wouldn't touch their waist or invade their space. Most of the options where you flirt with seven are just...that. Getting into seven's personal space. And it's just....so weird to me. Or when that is not the case, it's just the mc being a doormat or masochist by flirting with seven when they are throwing expletives at them. Like babe, have some self respect, yeah? But then again, if I don't pick those options I am not going to garner the required amount of romance points with them and will miss out on some core scenes. I was hoping if seven's romance could be more slow burn, like idk the flirting options don't show up until seven has become more comfortable around the mc or be more subtle.
 
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Sant

Well-known member
Member
I'm gonna generalize and rant A LOT (and definitely will go for a more technical perspective than the stories themselves), so here we go...

Almost all Twine stories, especially the ones which were former CoG wips. I swear there's something in that engine that makes writers post half of a chapter in a period of six months or an entire year.

I understand that learn a new coding language is hard but jfc, there was one IF I've followed around 3 years ago, it had such a diverse CC that hooked me into, and then the demo ended in the prologue, then after 3 months we got chapter 1 part 1, then 6 months later chapter 1 part 2, then another 6 months chapter 2 part 1, then after a whole year lefting the wip to dust, they decide to redo the story, and now we're still trying to reach chapter 2, over almost 3 years.

There's also the lack of choices, which are basically either "next page", wall of questions, or 2 choices that are there to define the personality stat. Guess all effort went to character customization and flavor text regarding those.

I can count with a single hand Wips that were completed or have very active updates.
 

kecap asin

Active member
Member
Lol yeah, the customization part is true.
Like please if anyone remember Zorlok? Good premise and with a hella detail customization, tons of ros, but it's been stuck in prologue for almost 3 years now.
There's an update recently and its about rewrite. Like what rewrite lol.

I think they all got overwhelm with the initial expectation that they set themselves in the first place. Like why not start something small first. Esp if its first project.
 
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Sant

Well-known member
Member
Lol yeah, the customization part is true.
Like please of anyone remember Zorlok? Good premise and with a hella detail customization, tons of ros, but it has been stuck in prologue for almost 3 years now.
There's an update recently and its about rewrite. Like what rewrite lol.

I think they all got overwhelm with the initial expectation that they set themselves in the first place. Like why not start something small first. Esp if its first project.
Gave up of that one too, the dev had also one wip called Hade's Cuisine, never even saw a physical wip of that one
 

kecap asin

Active member
Member
Gave up of that one too, the dev had also one wip called Hade's Cuisine, never even saw a physical wip of that one
Never even hear that one lol.

Even worse if the wip didn't have any demo yet it has so many cult following.

Like the amount of 'demo tba' in tumblr is piling up and it stay that way for years.

And the authors somehow still actively responding and promising to post the demo 'soon'
 

LosLorento

Member
Member
I'm gonna generalize and rant A LOT (and definitely will go for a more technical perspective than the stories themselves), so here we go...

Almost all Twine stories, especially the ones which were former CoG wips. I swear there's something in that engine that makes writers post half of a chapter in a period of six months or an entire year.

I understand that learn a new coding language is hard but jfc, there was one IF I've followed around 3 years ago, it had such a diverse CC that hooked me into, and then the demo ended in the prologue, then after 3 months we got chapter 1 part 1, then 6 months later chapter 1 part 2, then another 6 months chapter 2 part 1, then after a whole year lefting the wip to dust, they decide to redo the story, and now we're still trying to reach chapter 2, over almost 3 years.

There's also the lack of choices, which are basically either "next page", wall of questions, or 2 choices that are there to define the personality stat. Guess all effort went to character customization and flavor text regarding those.

I can count with a single hand Wips that were completed or have very active updates.
These types of IF "authors" are why I'm forever of the opinion that 99% of them would have a higher chance of completing their project if they bothered to actually have a full first draft (ie: an outline from beginning-middle-end) of their story done before throwing it out into the court of public opinion. Pantsing an IF is also just a whole different beast in comparison to pantsing an actual novel due to even the most linear of IFs having branching (or a variety of alternate texts for flavour).

Sant:
Almost all Twine stories, especially the ones which were former CoG wips. I swear there's something in that engine that makes writers post half of a chapter in a period of six months or an entire year.
CS games also have this problem you just don't see it as often (unless they have a popular Tumblr blog attached to it) since the CoG forums are awful at pushing up new stuff/locking old threads (I've had "new" threads pushed at me on that site where the last person to respond to it was two or three years ago) so you'll only ever see the stuff that gets popular unless you go in and configure the settings for topic notification. Rewrites in particular are also usually just a death knell for a IF because again; they are pantsing rather than plotting and more often than not the rewrite will just burn them out faster.

kecap asin:
And the authors somehow still actively responding and promising to post the demo 'soon'
And then they wonder why readers are disillusioned or consider things a scam (when Patreon gets involved) or get fed up with blogs going radio silent for months/years when they could at least give the audience they purposely cultivated a simple "hey, this isn't a focus for me atm" at the barest minimum rather than continue to string them along.
 
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God

Well-known member
Member
You know speaking of Tumblr one of the crazy Ifs I followed was Gods and villains. I remember following it when it was still TBA, cool premise I thought. One of the red flags is how fast they start a Patreon tbh, it has like a short prologue and I swear no exaggeration answered maybe hundreds of asks a day about ROs we have never met. Such a pet peeve of mine no offense but write something instead of answering asks all day, someone I follow had an interaction with them and I saw and swear after almost 2 years only a part of chapter 1 is done. But hey at least I know all these facts about Ros I’ll meet in 7 chapters, seems like some just want attention that stories bring them.
 

kb1234

Active member
Member
Seeing all this incomplete if talk....

i have read pushing 400 plus ifs at this point i could probably write a book on all the weird inconsistencies of the if community....

Funny story an if from last year (atp) was released as a half chapter with the rest being on the authors patreon. Now this author has an previous incomplete (now in the rewriting process. But probably isn't going to be released) if so they already had an established base on patreon. Obviously this was done in a way to get new people to tune into their patreon but maybe i'm a little evil because in the back of my mind i was just like,"this ish is gonna be free sooner rather than later because what new people are going to their patreon?". On top of this the author lowkey shot themselves in the foot from already having a history of an incomplete if and saying that updating the demo with extra chapters is gonna be for a long time. Nobody is gonna want to subscribe to that kind of thing. Its a red flag. I don't know why if authors do this to themselves. Some of these people will literally out the gate lock their games behind paywalls and wonder why they get no traction. Forcing them to either delete the if or make it magically free from the graciousness of their hearts.

Also i was right about that chapter being released publicly sooner rather than later (2 months after) and lo and behold that if hasn't been updated since july of last year.....I'm not even sure if they have a patreon anymore.....They don't.....

edit-Zorlok is supposed to get an update this month i believe. It's been interesting to see some of the old ifs make returns.
 
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Sant

Well-known member
Member
Why do a lot of these authors like to move to Twine anyway? Personally, I like the cscript UI better. The pictures and sounds used in Twine tend to distract me a lot from actually reading the story (which is the point of making an IF, no?)
There's a policy abt payment over CoG's IFs, some authors didn't liked that and started to move on, others prefer Twine because it helps them express their works more creatively, somehow.
 

LosLorento

Member
Member
Honestly, I wish more of them would consider Inky for self-publishing as well since like Twine it uses a MIT license (meaning free-to-use commercially as well as for personal projects).

And as a coding engine Inky, imho, has the ease-of-use/learning of ChoiceScript and the versatility of Twine; while also coming prepackaged with a save system, JavaScript/CSS support, and a light/dark theme set straight out of the box.
 
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Re336

Active member
Member
There's a policy abt payment over CoG's IFs, some authors didn't liked that and started to move on, others prefer Twine because it helps them express their works more creatively, somehow.
Well guess I can't argue with that when it involves money 🥲
 

SasariRomanii

Member
Member
1. The father never cared for the bastard MC. The only feeling he associated with MC was guilt of making a mess he couldn't fix thanks to having his brain on his dick that one time.

2. The one "oh-so-caring" was Belos, the half-sibling who got himself and more than half of the army killed due to his unrivaled stupidity. Even that cowardly, back-stabbing traitor was smarter. Later on, it was the half-sister, the queen which scolded her mother every time she hurled abuse at MC.

3. While I can agree to a degree on the way the PTSD was written, I'll have to say this: If you think having suffered from depression is anything like suffering from PTSD ( a complex and "uncured" PTSD as MCs) you are sorely mistaken. Nobody can even fathom the torture it is to live with it, especially one which was rooted to childhood trauma, caused by the very family who was supposed to raise and make you feel safe. Add to that the traumas he experienced as a soldier, and you'll have someone worse than MC, but alas, that's how much one can manage to understand of PTSD by reading psychological articles (depression, anxiety, paranoia, self-harming to give them a sense of control, zero self-confidence and guilt for even breathing among others... we just touched the surface). I assure you, the MC we got in ITFO is way tamer than he'd be if existing in reality.
This is like a year late but THANK-f*cking-YOU for this! I wanna laugh cry everytime someone complains about how doom-and-gloom the ItFO MC is like they wouldn't come out worse if they're in MC's shoes! The MC even manage to sort of pick himself up at the end of book one, finally moving on from self-harm, and that is such a hopeful thing imo. Sorry for being so emotional but this story actually got me through some hard times so I'm gonna defend this and Jon Louis to my miserable end.

Now... if ItFO, FH, and other good IFs I'm not gunna name (cause I'm a gatekeeping girlboss) are IFs that got me through hard times, these are the list of IFs that gave me a HARD TIME. Starting with: Blood Money, Creme de la Creme, Professor of Magical Studies
All of Zachari Sergy's abysmal creations, Creatures Such as We, Zombie Exodus the first book
The Passenger (love the first half absolutely hate the romance and the second half)
Teahouse of the Gods (I'd rather have a literal fever dream), New Witch in Town
Crown of Ashes and Flames, The King's Hound, Fields of Asphodel, Infamous
Press Play (this one is complicated, I like the IF but not a fan of the author)
Deux a Deux (only like what two chapters in, already opened a patreon and have not been updated since like a year don't even know if the author is still active)
Wayhaven Chronicles, The Northern Passage, The Lost Heir of Daria, A Tale of Heroes (I actually want to romance seeker but noooo)
Fernweh Saga (a long-winded nothing burger), REMEMBER YOU WILL DIE (the author is clearly biased towards Orla, and I hate how we're forced to like her, she's supposed to be some awesome girlboss boss but all I can see is an insecure *****, seriously have so much to say about her but all Imma say is the author don't seem to grasp the concept of show don't tell) Waywalker University, The Keeper series (f*ck you Sera, f*ck you Asstrid, f*ck you Kol, f*ck you all)

There's more but this is already too long lol. Imma save my energy for things I like. Peace out ✌
 

kecap asin

Active member
Member
This is like a year late but THANK-f*cking-YOU for this! I wanna laugh cry everytime someone complains about how doom-and-gloom the ItFO MC is like they wouldn't come out worse if they're in MC's shoes! The MC even manage to sort of pick himself up at the end of book one, finally moving on from self-harm, and that is such a hopeful thing imo. Sorry for being so emotional but this story actually got me through some hard times so I'm gonna defend this and Jon Louis to my miserable end.

Now... if ItFO, FH, and other good IFs I'm not gunna name (cause I'm a gatekeeping girlboss) are IFs that got me through hard times, these are the list of IFs that gave me a HARD TIME. Starting with: Blood Money, Creme de la Creme, Professor of Magical Studies
All of Zachari Sergy's abysmal creations, Creatures Such as We, Zombie Exodus the first book
The Passenger (love the first half absolutely hate the romance and the second half)
Teahouse of the Gods (I'd rather have a literal fever dream), New Witch in Town
Crown of Ashes and Flames, The King's Hound, Fields of Asphodel, Infamous
Press Play (this one is complicated, I like the IF but not a fan of the author)
Deux a Deux (only like what two chapters in, already opened a patreon and have not been updated since like a year don't even know if the author is still active)
Wayhaven Chronicles, The Northern Passage, The Lost Heir of Daria, A Tale of Heroes (I actually want to romance seeker but noooo)
Fernweh Saga (a long-winded nothing burger), REMEMBER YOU WILL DIE (the author is clearly biased towards Orla, and I hate how we're forced to like her, she's supposed to be some awesome girlboss boss but all I can see is an insecure *****, seriously have so much to say about her but all Imma say is the author don't seem to grasp the concept of show don't tell) Waywalker University, The Keeper series (f*ck you Sera, f*ck you Asstrid, f*ck you Kol, f*ck you all)

There's more but this is already too long lol. Imma save my energy for things I like. Peace out ✌

Yesss
I also love flaw character. Miserable wet of the cat character that is going through it. .
I love miserable character that is has some growth. While maybe still has their fair of struggle.

The reason why people tend to go to the two IFs because all of the struggle is well written. Not just all fact like "MC feel sad because bad guy kill their fams" but go way deeper than that. Like you as a reader can feel what mc is feeling.

And its quite comical for me if the IF tries to give you some kind of coping mechanism choices to pove that you MC is struggling (like pulling your sleves, or the popular one ; collecting one night stand for extra smut point). Often or not it just fall into " a 'quirky' little thing you can have :3" (Like seriously, I have one as form of self soothing, and I roll my eyes everytime it come out)

Anyway, my absolute number one favorite flaw, just literal mess of main char is Harry du Bois from Disco Elysium (Not an if but still lol)
 

SasariRomanii

Member
Member
Ah, funny you mentioned SOH.. takes me back. I had some fun with the first game. The rest, not so much.

To this day, there still isn't an IF in Japanese setting and/or with Anime-inspired premises that I like, which is a shame. ('Don't Wake Me Up' came close with the JRPG-like setting, but—well, I won't repeat what have aleeady been said about that game in this thread. One Knight Stand surprisingly scratches the itch with its FGO references and general nerdiness, but it's about Authurian legends at the end of the day.)

I would say though that at least (from what I have seen) the author of The Ultimate Magic student seems susceptible towards feedback, and since the game is early in development, it still has the potetials to be good. Unlike SOH's, whose fans collectively jumped on my dick and balls for the mild, early criticism that the random, out-of-place Japanese phrases it sprinkled into the dialogues broke immersion.

(So, really, it's almost like they have opposite have problems. TUMS(?) (Is that the acronym? lol)'s author could use more Japanese words where they'd be better served than the English translations. Meanwhile, SOH didn't need your charge to randomly burst into BAKA! or URUSAI! or whatever the hell that cringe *** kid said, I don't even remember. The decisions of when and when not to use Japanese transliteration in that game was inconsistent and odd.)
Heh, I remember thinking SoH could do well in a wild-west setting and tried to write a fanfic about it (emphasis on tried)
With the whole indigenous thing (at first I thought the Kondo would be equivalent to the Ainu but no they feel more like Native American)
And I like SoH and how the author doesn't shy away from all those dark and gritty stuff (gosh dang the fight and the gore is still TOP compared to other IFs) but more and more I feel like the Ronin is a very set character especially when looking at the additional contents... what a convoluted mess those are 😔
 

SasariRomanii

Member
Member
Yesss
I also love flaw character. Miserable wet of the cat character that is going through it. .
I love miserable character that is has some growth. While maybe still has their fair of struggle.

The reason why people tend to go to the two IFs because all of the struggle is well written. Not just all fact like "MC feel sad because bad guy kill their fams" but go way deeper than that. Like you as a reader can feel what mc is feeling.

And its quite comical for me if the IF tries to give you some kind of coping mechanism choices to pove that you MC is struggling (like pulling your sleves, or the popular one ; collecting one night stand for extra smut point). Often or not it just fall into " a 'quirky' little thing you can have :3" (Like seriously, I have one as form of self soothing, and I roll my eyes everytime it come out)

Anyway, my absolute number one favorite flaw, just literal mess of main char is Harry du Bois from Disco Elysium (Not an if but still lol)
🤝 (also hello fellow Indonesian... or Malaysian idk I have a feeling Malaysian people call kecap asin something else???)

Sry for being cringe gue cuma seneng nemuin orang Indo di forum CoG jadi nggak berasa sendirian bgt wkwkwk 😅
 
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